UNCSA TO PRESENT ALL-SCHOOL PRODUCTION OF
RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN’S OKLAHOMA!

Show Opens This Month!

Directed by Terrence Mann

Musical Direction by John Mauceri

WINSTON-SALEM
– The University of North Carolina
School of the Arts (UNCSA) will present
an all-school production of Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!
beginning this month. This
faithful restaging of the original 1943
Broadway production will open at
UNCSA’s RogerL.StevensCenter in downtown Winston-Salem on April 28, 2011, and will
continue through May 8. A special Gala
Benefit performance will be presented on
Friday, April 29. Proceeds from the
production and the Gala will benefit all
five arts schools at UNCSA.

WhenOklahoma! opened on Broadway
in 1943, it transformed musical theatre
with its innovative integration of
words, music, dance and design. UNCSA’s
restaging will include the original
Agnes de Mille choreography as
re-created by Gemze de Lappe, a renowned
dancer and teacher who performed in the
original Broadway and touring
productions of
Oklahoma!
and worked closely with de Mille for
many years. In addition, UNCSA has
extensively researched all aspects of
the original production and will
painstakingly recreate the original
costumes and stage design.

“An archival restoration of all the
production elements of
Oklahoma!
will give our students and our audiences
a chance to experience the first
American musical to have a single
artistic goal in telling its story
through music, drama, dance and scenery,
elevating the genre into a great
collaborative art form, not a medium for
separate songs and dances,” said John
Mauceri, Chancellor of UNCSA and Musical
Director for
Oklahoma! “It is our hope that by
experiencing this collaboration, one
that will include the exact number of
musicians in the pit and a newly
restored score, as well as the
supervision of Gemze de Lappe, our
students will be inspired to conclude
that true collaboration at the service
of great material, honestly presented
and deeply felt, is what we aspire to do
and is as viable as anything using the
most advanced technologies of our time.”

Theodore Chapin,
President and Executive Director of The
Rodgers&
Hammerstein Organization,
said,
“For John Mauceri to conceive the idea
of an
Oklahoma!
as close to exactly how it was when
it opened may seem like a simple idea,
but no one has had it before. It is sure
to add an invaluable piece to both the
historic and performance history of a
musical that has long been acknowledged
as the one that galvanized an
entertainment genre into an American art
form.”

Oklahoma!
will be directed by Terrence Mann, a
UNCSA alumnus (he graduated from the School of Drama
in 1978 with a B.F.A. in Acting)
and a prominent actor, singer, dancer
and director.
Mann made his Broadway debut in 1982 in
the Tony Award-winning musical
Barnum. His true breakthrough
performance was in the original cast of
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s
Cats, where he created the memorable
lead role of Rum Tum Tugger. Mann has
appeared in numerous other Broadway
shows including Tony Award-nominated
roles as the original Inspector Javert
in
Les Misérables
and
the original Beast in
Disney’s
Beauty and the Beast.
In addition, he has appeared in
The Addams Family (2010),
Lennon (2005), the Broadway Revival
of
The Rocky Horror Show (2000),
The Scarlet Pimpernel
(1997),
Getting Away with Murder
(1996),
Assassins
(1991),
Jerome Robbins' Broadway
(1989)
and
Rags
(1986).
Mann also has appeared on television and
in movies. Earlier in his career, Mann
played “Old Tom” in Paul Green’s outdoor
drama
The Lost Colony and later returned
to direct the show for four seasons. He
served as Artistic Director of North
Carolina Theatre in
Raleigh
for 10 years. He helped create the
Carolina Arts Festival and was its
artistic director for four years. His
musical
Romeo and Juliet has been performed
at the Goodspeed Opera House, The Ordway
in Minneapolis and a special high school presentation in Raleigh. Mann is currently
the distinguished professor of musical
theatre at
Western Carolina University
(WCU) in
Cullowhee,
N.C.,
and conducts The Triple Arts Broadway
Series in the summer at WCU.

“Terrence Mann is one of UNCSA’s most
accomplished alumni. He was, in fact,
the Dean of the
School of Drama Gerald Freedman’s first choice
as a director for our all-school
production of
Brigadoon, 15 years ago, but
scheduling conflicts made that
impossible,” said Chancellor Mauceri.
“Terry comes back to us after so many
successes as a professional actor and
director, and we could not be happier
having him as the director for our
Oklahoma!.
I know all our young artists will gain
mightily from his vast experience in the
professional theatre, his enormous
talent as a creative artist and his
personal warmth as a human being.”

Musical Director for
Oklahoma!
will be internationally renowned
conductor
John Mauceri, Chancellor of UNCSA.
Mauceri’s distinguished and
extraordinarily varied career has
brought him not only to the world’s
greatest opera companies and symphony
orchestras, but also to the musical
stages of Broadway and
Hollywood, as well as the
most prestigious halls of academia. A
recipient of a Tony, an Outer Critics’
Circle Award, a Drama Desk and two Emmy
Awards, Mauceri has worked closely with
the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization
on numerous projects including the
first-ever recording of all the
Overtures from the Rodgers & Hammerstein
musicals (“Opening Night: The Complete
Overtures”) as well as a restoration of
the film score from
The King and I, featuring Julie
Andrews and Ben Kingsley, which received
the Deutsche Schallplatten Prize in
1993. He was Music Director and Musical
Supervisor of three Broadway musicals:
Candide (1973),
On Your Toes (1983) and
Song and Dance (1985).

UNCSA faculty from the School of Design
& Production are working from archival
photography, extant designs, published
records and the supervisory input of the
legendary Gemze de Lappe, who danced in
the original national tour (1943), the
original Broadway production (during its
run, in 1946), the replication of the
original production for London’s Drury
Lane Theatre (1947), the Australian
premiere (1948) and the subsequent
European production in the early 1950s.
She was frequently called upon to teach
and train the actors and the singers in
the various productions seen throughout
the world. All the scenic designs of
Lemuel Ayers are under the supervision
of UNCSA faculty member Howard Jones,
and already have been painted and built
on campus by the students. The 110
costumes designs of Miles White have
been recreated by UNCSA faculty member
Bill Brewer, along with Christine
Turbitt. The fabrics have been bought
and many are being dyed and appliquéd to
represent the brilliantly colored and
varied textures of the 1943 production
and its various replications. Every
costume is being built from newly
recreated patterns and by the students.

“Miles White is generally considered the
father of Broadway costume design,”
Chancellor Mauceri said. “We were amazed
to find the original swatch book at the
Museum of the City of New York and,
together with some very creative
sleuthing and the very precise memories
of Gemze de Lappe, the public will
experience something quite astonishing
and brilliant. In addition, Lemuel Ayers
brought a sensibility of the WPA artists
and the folk art of Grandma Moses, as
well as the turbulence of dust bowl
artist, Alexander Hogue and the sweep of
regionalists, Thomas Hart Benton and
Grant Wood. Together with Agnes de
Mille’s choreography, the scenic and
costume designs continued and expanded
the story being told by Hammerstein’s
words and Rodgers music, as if one
person had created the production.”

The cast for
Oklahoma! is drawn from the students
at UNCSA, America’s first public arts
conservatory. The mission of the school
is to train young people to become
professional artists. Alumni from UNCSA
can be found throughout the professional
world, on Broadway, in Hollywood, at the
greatest opera houses and ballet and
dance companies, and as designers and
managers in virtually every field of the
performing arts.

“There is no better person to spearhead
this unique production of OKLAHOMA! than
John Mauceri.From my first days here at
Rodgers & Hammerstein, John has been a
tireless pioneer in the American Musical
Theater, bringing his extraordinary
musicianship to a world that at the
time, hadn't really begun to get the
artistic recognition it deserved.But one step at a time, John has
been at the forefront of the movement,
starting with the Broadway revival of ON
YOUR TOES
in
1983 (that was his idea), through his
years at the Hollywood Bowl where he
created the most imaginative programs
blending musical theater (sometimes
concert versions of entire shows) with
music from the American repertoire (who
else would have thought to play "Victory
At Sea" as a prelude to a segment from
SOUTH PACIFIC placing the audience in
the proper aquatic geography?)He garnered the trust of the
Rodgers and Hammerstein family along the
way, prompting the first-ever recording
of all the Overtures from the Rodgers &
Hammerstein musicals - still one of my
all-time favorite albums.For him to conceive the idea of
an OKLAHOMA! as close to exactly how it
was then, may seem like a simple idea,
but no one has had it before.It is sure to add an invaluable
piece to both the historic and
performance history of a musical that
has long been acknowledged as the one
that galvanized an entertainment genre
into an American art form.”

The full performance schedule for
Oklahoma! is:April 28, 8 p.m.; April 29, 7:30
p.m.; April 30, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; May
1, 2 p.m.; May 4-6, 8 p.m.; May 7, 2
p.m. and 8 p.m.; May 8, 2 p.m. Tickets
are available at the UNCSA Box Office by
calling 336.721.1945, or online at
www.uncsa.edu/performances.

The April 29 gala is almost sold out,
but tickets are still available to the
hottest party in town: the Downtown
Hoedown (the gala after-party)! For
ticket information, call the UNCSA Box
Office at 336-721-1945, or visit online
at
www.uncsa.edu/hoedown.

Ticket prices are: Prime Orchestra,
$100; Orchestra Center,
$63 for adults and $49 for children 13
and under; Orchestra Sides and Front
Balcony, $54 for adults and $40 for
children 13 and under; Rear Orchestra
and Rear Balcony, $43 for adults and $30
for children 13 and under. For the best
deal in town take advantage of the great
prices on
Oklahoma! “Family Four Pack” (2
adults and 2 children) for the evening
performances on Wednesday, May 4, and
Thursday, May 5, only: $150 for
Orchestra Side/Front Balcony and $110
for Rear Balcony. Please note that the
ARTSCARD cannot be used for
Oklahoma! Groups of 10 or more
receive a 10% discount on every
full-priced ticket. The 10% discount for
groups may not be combined with any
other offer.

The University of North Carolina School
of the Arts is the first
state-supported, residential school of
its kind in the nation. Established as
the North Carolina School of the Arts by
the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA
opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of
Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became
part of the University of North Carolina
system in 1972. More than 1,100 students
from high school through graduate school
train for careers in the arts in five
professional schools: Dance, Design and
Production (including a Visual Arts
Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music.
UNCSA is the state’s only public arts
conservatory, dedicated entirely to the
professional training of talented
students in the performing, visual and
moving image arts. UNCSA is located at
1533 S. Main St., Winston-Salem. For
more information, visit
www.uncsa.edu.